Denial (2 page)

Chapter 2

One year later

“
Merde,
” Felice forced out. She tried to scream, but her lungs emptied. The sound of gunfire surrounded them. She reached blindly for Celeste. “Do not let me die… Not here…not in this!”

It was raining hard. Celeste grasped Felice’s wet hand. “I won’t.”

Eyes wide, the doctor searched Celeste’s face. “I…wanted to…go with you.” She struggled to get the words out. “Meet your family.”

Drenched, Celeste choked back a sob. “You will.” She pushed wet hair tenderly from her colleague’s face. “I promise.”

Felice screamed. She gripped Celeste’s hand and writhed in pain. Her neck corded as she struggled to draw breath.

Freeing her hand from Felice’s grip, Celeste threw open her medikit and searched through it. “I think your lung’s collapsed.”

“I…can…feel…it!” Her face ashen, Felice sucked in air. “I…am…suffocating.”

Hands shaking, Celeste struggled to rip open the blood-soaked shirt. She paled when she saw the injury. It was a sucking chest wound. She fought back panic when Felice coughed up blood. Shaking, she wiped the rain from her eyes and focused. She examined the entry hole. There was no doubt, a lung had collapsed.

Felice’s eyelids fluttered wildly. Gasping, her mouth opened fully dragging in air. Swallowing, she gagged on her own blood.

Celeste dug through her medikit. There was no occlude dressing.

“
Fuck!”

Celeste needed something at least three times the size of the wound to prevent the dressing from being sucked in. Her eyes fixed on the plastic wrapping tucked into the side of the medikit. She grabbed for it. Drawing in a shaky breath, she pulled tape from her medikit and tried to tape the plastic around the wound.

“It hurts…like fuck!” Felice shouted, shaking violently.

“Now you swear,” Celeste said. “And here I thought it was just me that liked to cuss.” She tried to smile. “I knew you had it in you.”

Felice whispered, “How…long…do I have?”

Celeste looked at her and saw the terror in those dark blue eyes. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

“Tell me!” Felice gasped.

As doctors, they both knew the first hour was the golden. Survival depended on whether you could stabilize the patient during those precious sixty minutes.

Felice groaned.

Relief filled Celeste when she saw James with another field nurse running toward her. “Thank God, you’re here,” she yelled at him.

Celeste looked at the carnage around her. The militia had been brutal today. Celeste had been in Somalia for almost a year. Felice had been here only a few months. Their team arrived in the compound a week ago to treat what should have been routine medical problems, but they had struggled with the number of gunshot wounds.

“Tell me!”

Needing to get Felice to a trauma center, and onto an operating table, Celeste said, “We’ve got time.”

James dropped to his knees in a puddle beside them. “Jesus,” he said, staring at Felice.

Celeste glanced over her shoulder to the other nurse who was running to the injured young boy near her. Since the team had arrived, the militia made it clear they had a shoot-to-kill policy should any internee try to leave. To her utter despair, they were enforcing the policy liberally.

“What happened?” James asked as he stared at Felice.

“We were waiting for the copter,” Celeste replied. She pointed to the boy the other nurse was working on. “He ran toward us with a solider chasing him.”
 
She dug through her medikit. “The maniac was firing at him. The only reason the bastard stopped shooting was he realized his captain was with us.” Rage etched her face. “By that time Felice and the boy were down.” She looked upward. “Where’s the copter?”

“It was shot at on its way here.” Rain flew off James head when he shook it. “It’s not coming.”

“What?” Celeste looked at him in disbelief.

“It couldn’t land,” he replied.

“What are the options?”

“We can’t stay. The soldiers are on a killing spree. It’s no longer just about the people trying to leave the compound.” He searched through the medikit and yelled over a burst of gunfire. ”We have to evacuate by road. The ambulances are ready.”

Celeste shouted. “How many people are down?”

“Too many.” He shook his head. “We can’t take them all.”

Aware how poorly equipped with medical equipment the few old, battle-scarred ambulances were, Celeste fought back tears. She knew James meant they should only take the people who would survive the journey. The roadblocks the militia had set up between the compound and the hospital meant it would be difficult to get there.

Hiding her fear, Celeste refocused on Felice, and quickly relayed her vital stats. “She has a punctured lung. It’s collapsed. I’ve occluded it. There’s a pressure dressing on her chest wound, but I need to get a line in.”

Unrolling a pressure cuff, James began working on Felice as Celeste opened an IV line. “Her pupils are sluggish,” he said as he puffed up the cuff.

Working, Celeste shook her head. “I know, but we’ve got time.”

James pressed a stethoscope on the crook of Felice’s arm.

Celeste looked down at the beautiful French woman. She was struggling to stay conscious. The blood loss and lack of oxygen would soon cause her organs to fail. “Felice,” she said, putting her hands on the doctor’s face. “Listen to me. Keep fighting. We’re going to make it. Just hang in there. Please, just…stay with us!”

“She’s shocked already,” James said, letting the air hiss out of the cuff.

Celeste ignored him. “Just hang in there.”

Felice’s eyes lost focus and fluttered closed.

“We’re going to get you out of this,” Celeste said desperately. She stroked Felice’s face. “I promise.”

James grabbed Celeste’s arm. “She’s unconscious. We can’t stabilize her here!” He quickly stood when an ambulance careened to a stop near them. “She’s taken a K6 hit,” he yelled to the driver.

Standing, Celeste’s hands balled into fists as the rain battered down. K6 was medical shorthand for someone being hit in a kill zone. Bile swamped her mouth. She gagged then spat, horrified that Felice had just been written off.

Chapter 3

Maggie
opened the front door and heard Josh muttering from behind the large potted plant he was struggling to hold. She pushed the door wide. “Not another one!”

“Help me!” Josh said as he shuffled through the door.

Maggie grabbed the base and they made their way down the hall and took it out to the backyard. They put the pot down.

Maggie eyed the growing number of plants. “It’s beginning to look like the Everglades out here.”

Josh stretched his back.

“You should’ve never encouraged her to leave Scotland, Joshie,” she said. “Cold weather means fewer plants.”

“Amy should have studied landscape gardening not architecture,” Josh said, looking around him.

“Yes. She should have.”
 
Maggie ruffled his hair. “Anyway, I thought you two were going to Irene’s barbeque?”

“We are, but you know Amy, she wants to get things organized before the move.” He eyed Maggie then said teasingly, “She takes after her mom that way.”

Maggie’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah, let’s hope that’s the only thing she takes from her.”

Josh laughed. “Yet another grudge you can notch up against her mom then?”

“Too right,” Maggie replied and headed for the kitchen.

“Hi,”
Amy
said, sliding the two small plant pots she was carrying onto the work surface. “Just in?” she asked, quirking an eyebrow at her cousin.

Maggie had a fiery mop of short red hair, and the most amazing green eyes. At five foot seven, Amy wasn’t small, but
her cousin’s
six-foot frame easily towered over her, particularly when she wore her biker boots.

Maggie ignored her. She opened the fridge and rustled through it.

“Are you?”

Maggie dipped her head into the fridge and mumbled something.

“What was that?”
Amy
asked, coming closer.

Maggie
pulled out some snacks. She looked at her cousin and said sheepishly, “I got caught in a storm.”

“Oh…a…storm?”

“Yes!”

“Really?”

Maggie muttered under her breath.

“There wasn’t a storm last night.”

“Was!” Maggie said, taking an armful of food out of the fridge.

“What kind of storm?”

Exasperated Maggie sighed. “An electrical kind of storm with lightning and other thingies.”
She put
her snacks down. “A storm that hisses then crackles then hisses again and blows a few things up.” She opened a packet of cheese and put it and other things on three slices of bread. “What other types of storms are there?”

Amy smiled slowly. “Well. Let’s see there’s figment-of-your-imagination type of storms that stop you from coming home.”

“Yeah?”
Maggie
sandwiched the bread together and bit into it. She chewed. “I couldn’t comth home becauth there wath fog as well.”

“Oh!
Not just an electric storm with thingies blowing up…but fog too!” Amy said, cocking her head. “No wonder you couldn’t come home.”

Nodding enthusiastically, Maggie bit another large chunk from her sandwich. “Yeth…exacthly.”

“I think it’s right about now,” Amy said, her eyes shining with humor, “that you should be telling me what you got up to last night.”

Maggie defiantly bit into her sandwich.

Amy
looked at her cousin and thought no matter how carefully constructed her tomboy look was there was no hiding her features. She was a stunner.

“So…where were you last night?”

“I’m the older cousin, remember?”

“Don’t change the subject.”

“Eh…a frat party.”

“You’re kidding…a
frat party!
” Amy shook her head. “Are you cradle-snatching now?”

Josh walked into the kitchen and gave his fiancé a quick kiss. “Bye, hon.”

“Where are you going?” Amy asked as she reached out to smooth down his dark hair.
 

“To pick up Celeste?”

“What about the barbeque?”

“It’s okay,” he said. “We’ll be there by three.”
 

Amy
frowned. “Okay.”

“See you later, cradle-snatcher,” Josh called out to Maggie as he made his way down the hall.

“Bye, bye Joshie boy,”
Maggie
called after him. She finished her sandwich. “I didn’t know his sister was here.”

“Yeah,” Amy replied her frown deepening. “She flew in a few days ago.”

“You met her before you moved here didn’t you?”

“Celeste came to stay in Glasgow for a few days last year when Josh was finishing his studies.”

“I must have been hiking.”

Amy nodded. Maggie was a keen hiker.

“Yes, I remember now,” Maggie said. “You two didn’t get along. There was a bit of fracas wasn’t there at the airport or something?”

“Hardly a fracas, Maggie,” Amy said, sounding annoyed. “We just didn’t click.” She raised a hand. “And before you ask, I’m going to make a real effort to get on with her this time.”

“Does she still work for that organization…whatitsname?”

“Médecins sans Frontières,” Amy replied. Her eyes narrowed as she recalled that first meeting with Celeste over a year ago. For most of Celeste’s stay, she’d made every excuse to avoid spending time with her.

Taking a carton of apple juice out of the fridge,
Maggie
filled two glasses and handed one to Amy.

“You’re coming this afternoon, aren’t you?” Amy asked, accepting the cool glass.

Maggie shrugged. “Maybe.”

Amy sighed.
 
“We already talked about this and you agreed.”

Maggie
made a face.

“Oh, c’mon. Maggie! Don’t pull this stunt on me. Not today.”

“Don’t blame me…blame your mother,” Maggie said, leaning against the breakfast bar. “She’s always interfering.”

“Maggie,” Amy paused and caught her temper. Knowing this could end in an argument, she breathed in deeply. “Look, she just wants us all to get together to talk about your outfit.”

“Outfit…
frilly dress
, you mean!” Maggie looked down at herself. “Look at me. I’m a biker.”

“I need you there today.”

Maggie ran a hand through her short, red hair. “Amy, you know I haven’t worn a dress since I was at school, and even then it was a struggle to get me into one. And you’re letting her make me wear a stupid outfit to give you away!”

“You’ll be wearing the same dress as Caitlin and Rosie.”

“Exactly. They’re kids! And it’s just marginally acceptable to look like a bloody Oompa-Loompa when you’re a kid!”

“Aw c’mon, your dress isn’t that bad.”

“Yes, it bloody is.”

Amy eyed her cousin. “It’s not.”

Maggie stared back. “You wear it then.”

“Okay,” Amy conceded. “I guess, it has a little bit of a flair to it and—”

“
A
bit!
” Maggie snorted. “It has more flair than a Samba dancer.”

“Please,” Amy said, clasping her hands together. “Pretty please.
 
Go on for little ol’ me.”

“No.”

Amy widened her eyes and pouted. “You owe me.”

“How?”

“
How?
" Amy replied. Her eyes widened. “Well, let’s start with your DIY disaster last week.”

“It wasn’t a disaster. It was more like a wee technical hitch.”

“A wee technical hitch was it?” Amy replied with relish.

“I was changing a bulb that’s all.”

“You fell off a ladder, which fell through a window and smashed it,” Amy said. “On your way down, you grabbed the ceiling fan and ripped the whole thing off. And to top it all, you landed on a brand-new table that I’d just bought and shattered it!”

Maggie huffed. “I told you I had vertigo.”

“So you did,” Amy said, nodding. “And that’s why I told you I would do it.”

Maggie eyeballed her cousin. “It was a one off.”

“Was it?” Amy said. “What about the tree you cut down?”

“What about it?”

“It took out next door’s greenhouse?”

“It was an accident.”

“Really?” Amy replied. “Funny, they didn’t see it that way. I had to plan an extension for their daughter…
free gratis!”

“It’s a tiny extension.”

“Still means you owe me.”

They stared each other out.

“Okay,” Maggie said eventually. “I owe you,” she mumbled. “But, I still think the dress is ugly.”

Amy tried to hide her smile. “And your preferred choice is better?”

Maggie grinned. “Yup.”

“Really? Leather is better?”

“I’m talking snug-fitting, all-in-one black leather.”

“God only knows what kind of outfit you would have me wear,” Amy raised her brow. “Some hot bunny outfit for sure!”

“Now we’re talking.” Maggie grinned then sighed when Amy gave her that look.
“Okay, cuz, I’ve got your back.” She wiggled
her eyebrows. “Me in a frock…who knew!”

“Thank you.”

Maggie looked out the window to the backyard. “When are you moving the botanical gardens to your new place?”

“Soon,” Amy answered.

“How’s the house coming along?”

“Do you want the short or long answer?”

“Short.”

Her eyes fired up. “Fantastic.”

Maggie
went to her cousin and hugged her. “You’re unbelievable, you know that?”

“Why?” Amy hugged her back.

“Because, hon, it’s
you
that should be going all bridezilla on us.” She tapped Amy’s nose. “Not your mother.”

Amy’s eyes narrowed.

Letting her go, Maggie raised her hands. “Okay…okay, I’ve got your back, remember!”